CHAPTER III
NOT CAUGHT NAPPING
Five, ten minutes passed.
Andy was beginning to fear that after all he had been mistaken, and thatit had been some other sound he had heard when he thought a car hadstopped down the road toward Bloomsbury.
Then all at once he detected a movement over at the fence, and thefigure of a man or boy was seen to quickly clamber over, dropping in thefield. Even as he looked a second followed suit, then a third and even afourth.
"Whew! what's all this mean?" Andy whispered to himself, as he tooknotice of the fact that there was quite a procession of fellows changingbase from the road to the field: "Percy and Sandy thought they mightneed help in their little game of smashing our machine, or carrying itoff somewhere, so as to give us a bad scare; and I reckon they've pickedup a couple more of the same kind as themselves. Well we ought to beable to take care of four just as easy as two 5 and the howl will beall the louder, I guess."
He moved over a little, and with the toe of his shoe nudged Felix underthe ribs.
"Quit shovin' there!" muttered the farm hand, possibly thinking he wasin bed with some other boy.
Luckily the night breeze was making the windmill turn, not very faraway; and as it needed oiling, there was a constant succession ofsqueaks and groans; so that the chances of Felix being heard when hespoke in this way were very small. Andy would not take any further riskbut creeping over shook the boy roughly.
"Wake up, Felix; they're coming across the pasture!" he whispered in hisear.
That was quite enough for Felix. He seemed to grasp the situation atonce, and only muttering the one significant word, "Gosh!" heimmediately sat up.
Andy, moving as little as possible, pointed to where moving figurescould just be detected advancing in a bent-over attitude.
"How many?" whispered the farm hand.
"I counted four," replied the other.
"Whee! bully for that!" chuckled Felix, no doubt tickled because thepromised circus would be a double-ring affair, instead of the ordinarykind, and therefore quite up to date.
Both of them lay there watching intently.
They could see how the intruders were crawling along, anxious apparentlyonly to avoid being seen from the direction of the farmhouse, the roofof which showed dimly in the moonlight over on the other side of thelittle ridge.
As the creepers drew closer, the watchers saw that they had adopted themethod spoken of by the farmer in connection with the bank thieves,keeping their identity secret--they all seemed to have handkerchiefstied across their faces, and kept their hats pulled well down, so thatthey could easily have passed close to an acquaintance without much riskof discovery.
Of course Andy could tell that they were boys, and not men; and it wasan easy task for him to guess who two of the party at least must be.
The preparations he and Felix had made were about as simple as anythingcould be. The farm hand possessed an old musket that had been used inthe Civil war, and which, muzzleloader that it was, had probably broughtdown many a plump rabbit when held in the hands of the owner, as well asblack ducks in the marshes along the shore of Lake Sunrise.
Besides this, the farmer had loaned Andy his double-barrel Marlinshotgun, an old model when compared with the up-to-date hammerless andthe repeaters, but no doubt a good, serviceable weapon.
Of course they had no idea of trying to pepper the marauders, though itwould seem as though they richly deserved to be punctured with a fewsmall bird shot, because of the meanness of their contemplated action.
To give them a good fright would satisfy Andy, and he had made the eagerfarm hand promise to fire up in the air also because he was afraid lestFelix allow his indignation to have full swing, when he saw what thefour boys meant to do.
They were skulking very close to where the aeroplane lay now, and thecritical moment had undoubtedly arrived when the surprise must belaunched.
"Ready, Felix!" he whispered, in the softest of tones.
"Yep!" grunted the farm hand, at his elbow.
"One, two, three! Blaze away!"
With the last word Felix let go with his old musket, into which he musthave rammed a tremendous charge, for it made a report like unto thecrash of thunder, and came very near sending the owner flat on his back.
Immediately on the heels of this boom Andy pulled one of the triggersof his double-barrel, so that the report seemed almost merged in withthat of the other weapon.
The four boys had jumped to their feet at the flash and report whichstartled them when Felix fired. And as they turned to dash wildly awayand that second shot came, they became madly excited, evidently underthe full belief that they were being made targets for a whole battalionof sharpshooters.
Two of them collided, and rolled over on the grass, kicking wildly andscrambling to their feet again, to resume their flight toward the fence,which doubtless seemed three times as distant as when they were creepingtoward the stranded aeroplane.
The whole thing was so ridiculous that Andy burst out laughing, andcould hardly hold his gun; seeing which the farm hand made bold tosnatch it out of his hands, and aiming directly at the place where thefugitives were just then in the act of mounting the fence in theirpanicky flight, he pulled the trigger.
There was a series of loud yells, which would seem to indicate that afew of the small shot contained in the shells with which the Marlin hadbeen loaded must have reached their mark, and pricked the boys like somany needles would have done.
That was the last seen of them, though for a short time they could beheard running along the hard road, and exchanging excited comments,possibly comparing their injuries.
Then a car was heard to start off with a great deal of bluster, and camedashing along past the farmhouse, though those in it bent low enough tokeep any one from discovering who they might be.
Andy did not know whether to be a little angry or not because of whatthe impetuous Felix had done, but apparently nobody had been seriouslyhurt; and on the whole, the four "sneaks," as Felix called them,deserved some punishment; so he let it go at that.
There was no further alarm that night. Neither of the guardians of thehydroplane expected any, after the prompt measures that had been takento inform meddlers of the warm reception they might expect.
All the same, Andy kept up his vigil until sleep almost overpowered him,when he aroused Felix to finish out the night.
With the coming of early dawn he knew that the safety of the imperiledaeroplane was assured, and that when the horn blew, he and Felix couldboth go in to breakfast. Indeed, he released the farm hand long beforethat time, so that he might go about his usual early morning chores; andAndy himself found plenty to do around the machine until summoned to themorning meal.
The farmer was a hard sleeper, and had not heard a single thing that hadtaken place; so that he was surprised when told how the enemy had comeafter all, and what measures the boys had taken in order to frightenthem away.
He even told Felix he could have a day off as soon as the last load ofhay was in the barn, just to show how he appreciated the bold way inwhich his hired help had tickled the rascals when they were getting overthe fence. Indeed, the farmer said Andy had been too lenient, and thatif it had been his aeroplane that was threatened in that mean way, hewould have felt wholly justified in emptying both barrels of the gunafter the marauders, first giving them time to get a certain distanceoff, so that no serious results might follow the discharge.
But Andy was never a vindictive lad, and he believed the fellows hadreceived sufficient punishment, especially as no one knew exactly whatthey had meant to do in connection with the new hydroplane. PossiblyPercy only wanted to look it over at close quarters, and knowing hewould not be allowed to do so if he asked permission outright, sought totake this opportunity. But from the way in which they had riggedthemselves out, so as to avoid being recognized, if seen, it looked asthough the four boys had something more than that in view.
However, all's well that ends w
ell, and Andy was quite satisfied withthe way things had turned out.
"Here's hopin' a few of 'em may be limpin' 'round this same mornin', andfeelin' rayther stiff in the legs," Felix took occasion to remark, asthey sat at table, and Andy was again in danger of being foundered bythe multitude of good things which the farmer's wife spread thereon,bacon and eggs, fried potatoes, scrapple, puffy biscuits, apple sauce,doughnuts, cold pie, jelly, and finally heaping dishes of lightpancakes, which were to be smothered in butter and real maple syrup madeon the farm each early spring when the sap was running.
"I expect Frank will be along any minute now," Andy remarked, about thetime he had to firmly refuse a fourth helping of cakes, because he couldhardly breathe comfortably. "It wouldn't take him long to do what littlework was necessary, in our shop, which you know my old guardian,Colonel Whympers, built for us before we found my father, when he wasmarooned in that valley in South America, a prisoner for many months,because the cliffs around prevented him from escaping. And of coursehe'll gallop out here on your saddle horse, Mr. Quackenboss."
"Well, work ain't got any call on either Felix or me until we see allthat goes on, that's flat," remarked the farmer, with a smile, "and it'slucky he done the milkin' already, or else the cows'd have to wait longafter their usual hour, which is a bad way to treat 'em, you know."
They all went out to the field, even the housewife and little Billiewanting to see what a real aeroplane looked like at close quarters. Manytimes had all of them seen the Bird boys, and perhaps Percy Carberry aswell, soaring aloft as if the upper air currents might be their naturalheritage; but up to now they had never had the chance to examine one ofthe wonderful machines, and touch the various parts gingerly as thoughafraid of injuring them.
"Beats all what people are a-doing nowadays," ventured the farmer,shaking his head with astonishment, almost awe, as he looked the thingover. "They ain't even contented to just fly like a red-tailed hawk, oran eagle that kin look the sun direct in the eye; but now they got tohave a contraption that's at home in the air or on the water; ahydroplane you called, it didn't you, Andy? And them ere twin pontoonsunderneath, that look kinder like gondolas, as you say, are made ofaluminum, and kin hold up the whole affair when you light on water. Buttell me, how in all creation kin you ever mount up agin, once you settlethere?"
"Why that's the easiest thing of all," replied the young aviator;"you've watched a wild duck get up many a time, haven't you, Mr.Quackenboss; well, we do just the same, only instead of flapping ourwings, we start the engine, and skim along the surface for a littledistance, then elevate the planes, and immediately begin to soar upward.And it does the stunt as gracefully as anything you ever saw. Some timeI hope to give you a chance to see how it works. When we leave here, ofcourse we'll use the bicycle wheels you see underneath, and run alongthe ground until going fast enough to soar. But I think I see Frankcoming, away down the road there."
"That's right," declared the farmer; "I know my Bob as far as I can seehim, and his gallop in the bargain."
Frank was evidently coming at full speed, and Andy presently got theidea in his head that his cousin seemed to be strangely in a hurry forhim. He wondered whether anything could have happened at home, and ifFrank would prove to be the bearer of bad news.
The other dashed into the narrow road leading from the pike to the barnsof the Quackenboss farm. Hitching the horse to a post, he started towardthe spot in the big field where the two boys and the farmer awaited hiscoming, close beside the stranded aeroplane.
Frank was carrying the little part he had expected to knock together atthe workshop; but as he drew nearer, his chum could readily see that hewas considerably excited.
"Is everything all right here, Andy?" he called out, even beforereaching them.
"Yes," replied the other Bird boy, promptly, "though we did have a callfrom four fellows who had their faces hidden behind handkerchiefs, butwe fired our guns in the air and nearly frightened them to death. Felixgrabbed the double-barrel I had, and gave them a last shot when theywere climbing the fence over there; and we heard some howls too, so Iguess a few of the Number Eight shot pinked them. But what makes youlook so bothered, Frank? Has anything happened at home?"
"There sure has," came from Frank, as he joined them, and cast a pleasedglance over the flying machine that lay upon the grass like a huge bat,with wings extended.
"Tell me what it was?" demanded Andy, breathlessly.
"Somebody broke into our hangar and workshop, and knocked things aroundat a great rate," Frank went on to say. "Acted like they might be justmad because they didn't find our new machine there, and wanted to showtheir spite. And nobody in your house knew a thing about it till I camealong, after an early breakfast, meaning to get the piece I'd beenworking on up to eleven last night, when I went home to sleep, andlocked up the place as usual."
"That's a queer piece of news you're telling me, Frank," said the other,looking puzzled, as well he might.